


Bad Blood

by orphan_account



Series: Things Fall Apart [2]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: M/M, Maybe - Freeform, One-Sided Attraction, Past Relationship(s), no betas we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-04
Updated: 2018-04-04
Packaged: 2019-04-18 05:42:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14206338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Answers? There aren’t answers, only more questions. Only broken things and two of the most tragic love stories never told.





	Bad Blood

**Author's Note:**

> Title comes from “Bad Blood” by Nao

"You fucked Yixing." Jongdae is sitting out on his balcony with Chanyeol, watching the sunset, telling himself he doesn't have the right to be angry.

"I've fucked a lot of people." Chanyeol takes another drag of his cigarette, and when he exhales he breaths fire instead of smoke. 

"You never fucked me." Chanyeol won't look at him. 

"I don't want to just fuck you." Jongdae plucks the cigarette from between Chanyeol's fingers and hefts himself up to sit on the railing. The other is quick to get up and snatch it back before he can bring it to his lips. 

"Don't. You'll ruin your voice." Jongdae shoots him an unimpressed look. 

"Since when have you ever given two shits about me or my voice." 

Chanyeol flicks his his cigarette, half gone, over the rail. "I give all the shits about you and your voice." He moves towards Jongdae, and the other lets out a yelp when he lifts him without any preamble. 

The other struggles against him weakly, and it worries him. Jongdae used to be more solid than this; there was a time when he could have floored Chanyeol if he wanted to badly enough. He's tiny now, a waif. 

He throws Jongdae onto his couch with a grunt. "Hey." Jongdae looks up at him, upside down, limbs akimbo. "You heard from Baek?"

"No." Chanyeol falls down beside him. "He doesn't want to talk to me."

"Did something happen? Before he left?" Jongdae rights himself, and Chanyeol dodges his foot as he does so. 

"He broke up with me, so I went out and got shit-faced. Then I fucked Kyungsoo, but it was really...platonic?" He runs a hand through his hair and lets out a frustrated sigh. "Anyway, somehow I managed to cheat on him even though we were already broken up."

"Wait...you fucked Kyungsoo? How was that?" Jongdae is laughing at him, eyebrows in his hairline. 

"He's such a dom; it felt more like a fight than a fuck. I liked it though." Chanyeol grins at him lasciviously. "I gave him some pretty bruises."

Jongdae just leers at him. "You're such a whore." 

"Excuse you." Chanyeol gathers all of his faux attitude into his neck and his pointer finger. "I prefer the term 'Woman of the Night.'"

The two stare at each other for a moment. Chanyeol's lips are perfectly caught between a purse and a sneer, and Jongdae's shoulder are slowly inching towards his ears, looking more and more uncomfortable by the second. Then they're both laughing, throwing themselves all over each other. "Woman of the night really?" Jongdae chokes he's laughing so hard, and Chanyeol just laugh harder at him, nodding. 

"Hey man, 'prostitution' is illegal." 

Jongdae doesn't even respond to that one, choosing to simply look away with a smile. He shakes his head wondering how he managed to fall in love with this specific asshole. He looks back at Chanyeol, and the other is staring back at him, like he's waiting with bated breath for whatever Jongdae is about to do or say. He has to tell himself to calm down because, coming from Chanyeol, looks like that don't mean anything.

 

 

Jongin is sitting alone in his room, still reeling from everything that happened during his first trip for one of Tao's pieces. It had been exhilirating and terrifying all at the same time. Tao has been there, he’d got to see him again even if it was just for a single moment.

Then there was Sehun.

_'Why are you chasing him, when I'm right here? I want to be with you, and I'm right here!'_

He still hasn't spoken to Sehun about it, and he's hesitant to do so. How does he even know that the Sehun who said that was even real? It might not have been real; it could just be some bullshit construct the universe was using to put him through his paces. For all he knew, Sehun didn't even feel that way. He needed to talk to Luhan. 

He flops down on his bed and lets out a sigh. How could he keep doing this? There’s an exhaustion that's set in his bones, and this is only the first of who knows how many pieces he's meant to find. He fiddles with his phone, dipping into his contacts. His thumb hovers over Luhan's number. He almost doesn't press it because he's not even sure this number is even Luhan's anymore, but in the end he won't even know until he tries. 

It rings once, twice, over and over. 

_"We're sorry the number you are trying to reach has been disconnected. Please hang up and try again."_

"Damn." It looks like he's got to take another trip to Yixing's suicide den. Great. 

  
When Yixing answers the door, he's horrifically sober, mouth twisted into a frown. He moves aside, a silent invitation for Jongin to come inside, and when he does enter, the first thing he notices is the faint scent of Kris’ cologne. He also spots the elder's jacket thrown haphazardly on Yixing's sofa, forgotten.  _Oh._  

"What did you need?" He asks as Jongin sits.

"I need some insight, some idea of what I'm doing?" The look Yixing sends him makes him feel stupid. 

"What do you even mean by that?"

Jongin sighs. "I don't even know how many pieces I'm looking for, what iterations of Tao I'm going to have to suffer through seeing?" 

"I can't answer either of those for you." Yixing sounds annoyed. "I just know that when you've got all of the pieces, that pendant will be useless; it won't take you anywhere." 

"Well, fuck. I'm just groping blindly?" 

Yixing sighs and brings a hand up to his forehead. "It's seems like that's all any of us are doing anymore."

Jongin resists the urge to be nosy, to ask about to what Yixing is alluding. The elephant in the room is bigger than usual, larger that Jongin's well known disdain for the other. It's hard because even though Jongin doesn't like Yixing anymore, he'll always love Yixing, in a familial way, unconditionally even. What they've got is a bond that goes far beyond the crush Jongin harbored for him in middle school, and the acute sting of rejection that came when Yixing chose Kris instead. It's what gives Jongin the right to be nosy, but it's also what gives him enough sense to keep his mouth shut about it. If Kris is in the middle of this (and Jongin's 1000% sure he is) then Yixing won't tell him anyway. That's the promise they made to each other back when Yixing graduated. Won't ask; don't tell. 

"Jongin." Yixing is looking at him, eyes wary.

"Yeah?"

"Pace yourself, finding these pieces." The way he says it makes Jongin think that Yixing knows more than he lets on, but not enough to give Jongin anymore than another layer of confusion to fight through. In a way, Jongin is grateful for it; he's never liked half answers. 

They share a set of terse goodbyes, and Jongin sees himself out. 

 

 

Apparently that Sehun from the windy otherworld wasn’t even remotely real, because two days after Jongin finds that first piece, the real Sehun is on his door step with Math 221 homework and a six pack of some beer Jongin probably hates. He’s wearing this shit eating grin, and Jongin doesn’t know if it’s because he hasn’t been to class in a week and half, or if the blonde has something else in mind. He guesses he’s about to find out.

“So derivatives are a bitch, and you picked a great time to decide not to come to class.” He pushes past Jongin to let himself inside, and Jongin, himself, just wants to cry.

  
Despite that it’s supposed to be math catch up, they have fun. They have fun in a way that they haven’t in a while. Now that Jongin knows, he realizes that there was always this sort of bitterness in the time he spent with Sehun once Tao had inserted himself into their lives. Jongin realizes that the little snatches of time that he spent with Sehun had always made the other feel vindicated. Now though, Sehun is light. There’s no underlying blackness, no jealousy, and it makes Jongin realize just how much he’s missed his friend.

“I think Chanyeol is having sex with Yixing.” Jongin says conversationally after they’ve given up on calculus.

“That’s the worst decision he could have made.” Sehun cracks open a beer, some shitty American brew. “Does he want to get eaten?”

“Kris wouldn’t eat Chanyeol.” _He’d just take it out of Yixing’s ass._ Jongin thinks darkly, remembering that fucking Armani jacket laying abandoned on Yixing’s couch.

“Whatever you say, you know him and Yixing are just fucking weird together. Like star crossed...I don’t know. Is it healthy to keep having sex once you’ve decided you hate someone?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Jongin does’t want to talk about this anymore.

 

 

It’s been a week, and Jongin thinks it’s time he’s set out to find another piece. He does the same as he did before. He sits on his bed, pendant clutched tightly in his palm, and he thinks about Tao, about the lilt to his voice and the brush of his hair against his cheeks. He feels the same pull, and suddenly he’s falling ass first onto hard concrete.

This world, it’s....grey. Grey sky, towering buildings of steel and glass, grey concrete.

Just grey for miles.

What can Jongin do but move forward, so that’s what he does.

  
There are all these streets and no lights, no signs, no nothing. It makes Jongin wonder where the hell he’s going. Everything looks the same, like he’s walking in a loop. Then he spots it, an alley way between walls of buildings, not a dedicated street, just a cranny of an alley, that’s where he turns.

It spits him out at a three way intersection; he can turn left, right, or go straight ahead. Something in his gut tells him straight ahead. It’s one the few times following his first mind had ever done him any good; halfway down the block, lit up by a break in the clouds like some holy object, is a little pop of color in the form a café. Jongin reads the sign on the awning, (the only distinguishing thing for miles), and realizes that it’s the café he and his boyfriend, (at the time), had always frequented in high school.

There in the window, sitting alone with a plate of scones and a mug of what could only be coffee, black, is Do Kyungsoo.

 _Fuck._  

 

Jongin and Kyungsoo’s relationship is not good by any stretch of the imagination, but how good can your relationship with someone be when you dump them for a guy you just met? Yeah, Jongin wasn’t exactly kind to Kyungsoo, and the elder is all the more bitter for it. This is suddenly going to be way more difficult than Jongin first anticipated.

Leaning against the window, next to Kyungsoo’s chair is a bow staff, and Jongin knows that he has no choice but to go inside. He treads lightly, and flinches when the soft chiming of bells signals his arrival, though, from what Jongin can tell, the elder doesn’t acknowledge that he’s no longer alone. Standing in the door way, Jongin realizes that the place is completely empty save for Kyungsoo. All the smells are there, freshly roasted coffee and hot and ready pastries and tarts, filling the space, but that’s it, no people.

“Mind if I sit here?” Jongin asks, fragile, as he approaches Kyungsoo cautiously.

“No.” Comes a rather placid reply. “Help yourself.” The other takes a sip of his coffee, but doesn’t look up at Jongin, content to study the plate of scones between them. “Go on, have one.”

Jongin takes a scone, and brings it to his lips. Kyungsoo is still looking down, and all Jongin wants while he takes a bite of this scone is for the elder to look at him. “It’s good.” He lies. It tastes like dirt.

The only thing he gets from Kyungsoo is a soft hum of agreement, but he still won’t fucking look at Jongin. “I need to talk to you.” He says quietly. “About your bow staff.”

“What of it?” Kyungsoo’s still deathly calm; he still looking down.

“I was wondering if I could-“

“No.” The cut is firm. It’s the first bit of emotion that Kyungsoo has shown. “You may not.”

“Kyungsoo, please, I need it. I need it to help Tao.”

“Tao you say?” Now Kyungsoo is looking at him, and even though his voice is level again, his expressions betrays a barely concealed rage.

The world outside the café erupts into chaos. Concrete is reduced to rubble while steel twist and gives to mountains that come jutting through the infrastructure of the city. Jongin stares openly in fear before whipping back toward Kyungsoo, who is calm again, looking down again. “It’s out of the question.”

“Really?” Jongin stares at Kyungsoo in equal parts terror and anger. “Do you really hate Tao that much!?” He demands.

“Why shouldn’t I?” The elder still sounds calm, but his hands are shaking. “He ruined everything.”

“Kyungsoo, please don’t do this. Don’t-“

“We had a future. We had a plan.” The other slams his hand on the table, jumping from his seat to hunch over and glare at Jongin. _“We loved each other, damn it!”_

Kyungsoo walks around his seat, grabbing the bow staff. “He ruined that, Jongin. You let him ruin our future together, so, no, you can’t have this.” Then he’s walking out of the café into the chaos.

  
Chasing after Kyungsoo is no easy feat, like with Sehun, the landscape is against him. Eventually Jongin loses his trail altogether, and he has resort to trying to jump to catch him. He almost catches the elder more than once, but he’s always just out of reach. It quickly becomes exhausting, and Jongin starts to wonder if he’s approaching this form the wrong angle. All this time he’s been chasing after Kyungsoo, but what if...

He pulls the pendant out of his pocket, holds it tightly in his fist.

The wind whips around him as a lands, and Jongin realized two things. One, they’re on top of a plateau, high above the rest of the world; two, Kyungsoo is right there, right in front of him, looking at him balefully.

“You left me a wreck, and you didn’t even care. All of this time, and you’ve never acknowledged that it was even possible that you could have hurt me.”

Kyungsoo turns away from him, puts some distance between them before looking at Jongin over his shoulder. “So now you have to hurt like I hurt.” He raises the bow staff above his head, full of intention, and Jongin jumps forward, panicked.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers, as he stops Kyungsoo from breaking the bow staff over his knee. “You’re right. I was selfish and cruel to you.” Jongin tries his absolute hardest to project sincerity.

Kyungsoo’s shoulders shake with quiet sobs, and the world flattens from mountains and mesas to barren flatland. “I’ve hated you for so long.”

“That’s fine.” Jongin concedes. “Fair even, but don’t do this. You can do everything else to me, but don’t do _this.”_

Jongin doesn’t receive a verbal answer, instead Kyungsoo’s hands fall away for the bow staff. Jongin pulls away from Kyungsoo. “Thank you.”

Kyungsoo doesn’t say anything else; he just disappears.

Jongin takes the queue and does the same.

  
When Jongin appears back in his room, he’s exhausted, and his head hurts. He doesn’t feel exhilarated or triumphant like he did when he got the earring from Sehun. He just feels hollow.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, here we are. I’m just winging it because it’s been god knows how long, and I don’t remember half of what I had planned for this AU. Also, don’t worry, this is the last relationship Jongin is going to be mentioned as being involved in. “Mary Sue” my ass.


End file.
